As US troops take the Iraq war out of the desert and into the main cities, they are increasingly seeing children in their line of fire.
Many are innocent civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time and military officers concede that some may have been killed in artillery or mortar fire, or shot down by soldiers whose judgment is impaired in the "fog of war".
But others are apparently being used as fighters or more often as scouts and weapons collectors. US officers and soldiers say that turns them into legitimate targets.
"I think they're cowards," Boggs said of the parents or Fedayeen paramilitaries who send out children to the battlefield.
"I think they thought we wouldn't shoot kids. But we showed them we don't care. We are going to do what we have to do to stay alive and keep ourselves safe."
Sydney Morning Herasld April 8 2003
{the 'fog of war' surrounds all of us now. all of us. and it will for the rest of our lives.I see this boy, this Boggs, set down in the midst of a dream, a fairy-tale land of dragons and ogres and trolls and he has to keep himself safe and alive. what an odd thing to say. because wouldn't that have started back home? wasn't he safe and alive back home?}
